Timothy Garton Ash, in a recent Der Spiegel interview implicitly talks about the nature of work in our society.

Garton Ash: [..]We must make the social market economy credible again as the central solution for the middle class.

SPIEGEL: How?

Garton Ash: There are two major domestic policy challenges for the European Union. First: Creating meaningful work for the majority of society. And second: the integration of fellow citizens of non-European descent.

In fact, it was Albert Camus who spoke earlier (cca. 1951) about work's lacking meaning. Making a living has become comparatively much easier than ever before. But we lost something in the process, which, despite Mr. Garton Ash prescription, won't be easy to come by.